


Coyote and The Giant

by unfroyharper



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-06
Updated: 2011-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-27 00:17:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfroyharper/pseuds/unfroyharper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the night after Cheshire's almost-jailbreak from the Slab and Lian can't get to sleep. Roy decides to go the old-fashioned way and tells her a bedtime story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coyote and The Giant

It was bedtime in the Harper wing of Titan's tower and after the customary chase down the hall to get Lian bathed and in her pajamas, Roy had finally gotten his baby girl into bed for the night. It had been a long day for them both, especially after their visit to Lian’s mother resulted in them getting caught up in a jailbreak attempt, so it was no small wonder she was restless. Even Roy couldn’t help but fidget a little as he sat on the edge of her bed.

Lian couldn’t just stay up all night looking far too solemn for a preschooler though, so Roy struck a bargain. “Alright, _Etai Yazi_ , how about I tell you a bedtime story? Lady’s choice.” She brightened at the idea and he ruffled her hair fondly.

“I wanna hear a story about Coyote, Daddy!” Roy grinned, always happy to oblige his favorite girl, especially if it involved telling her an old Navajo legend. He put on an exaggerated thinking face, humming and chin-stroking for a few minutes until she squealed and hit his arm, laughing. “Daddyyyy!”

“Alright, alright! Hold your horses, princess, I’ve got one! Have I told you the one about Coyote and the Giant? No? Okay, good.” He waited until she had settled down under the covers to begin. “So Coyote was walking around one day, seeing where the wind would take him, when he ran into Old Woman. She said…” Roy exaggerated the old woman’s voice for effect. “‘Hey Coyote, where’re you goin’?’ and he said back, ‘Oh, you know, just wanderin’ around!’”

“Daddy, did they really talk like that?” Lian asked him dubiously, face scrunched up with doubt.

“Of course, sweetheart! Just because this happened a really long time ago doesn’t mean they can’t talk like we do.” That answer seemed to satisfy her and he continued with the story. “So anyway, Old Woman got a funny look on her face and said he’d better start wanderin’ another way ‘cause there’s a _Giant_ in that direction and he kills _everyone_!

“Now, Coyote was a stubborn guy and didn’t want to change directions so easily. Sure, he’d never _seen_ a giant before, but how big could they really be? So he told Old Woman that he wasn’t scared. He said he’d fought _tons_ of giants before! Old Woman tried to tell him that the giant was much bigger and much closer than the silly Coyote thought, but he ignored her and kept going. He found a stick that was twice as thick as his arm and thought that’d be big enough to take down the giant, so he took it with him. Walking further into the woods, he walked up to a funny-looking cave. He figured his stick would be enough protection against anything inside, so he went in.”

The quiet cantor of his voice and the need to be still finally worked its magic on the girl. Lian’s eyes drooped and then shot open as she tried to stay awake to hear the rest of the story. Roy noticed and lowered his voice.

“As Coyote wandered further into the cave, he met a woman crawling on the ground. When he asked her if she was okay, she said, ‘I haven’t eaten anything in days! I’m so hungry, I can’t even walk! What are you doing with that stick, anyway?’ Coyote replied, ‘I’m gonna kill the giant with it! Have you seen him?’ The woman laughed at him and said they were _already in the giant’s belly_!”

Lian gasped right on cue and Roy immediately wanted to hug her. Story-telling was never more fun than with her as his audience.

“Coyote was confused. ‘How can I be in his belly?’ he asked, ‘I’ve never even met the guy!’ The woman shook her head. ‘You probably thought his mouth was a cave, like everyone else in here! It’s easy to get in but nobody gets out.’ Coyote was stubborn though, so he threw his stick away and began looking for a way out. Soon he came across more people crawling on the ground.”

“How many people?” Lian piped up, catching Roy off guard for a second before he made up an answer, easy as breathing.

“Fifty-seven, baby. Anyway, Coyote asked if there was some kind of sickness going around or something. One of the men spoke up to answer him. ‘No, we’re not sick, we’re just starving to death! None of us have eaten since we got trapped here!’ Coyote scoffed at their foolishness. ‘If we’re _really_ in the giant’s stomach,’ he said, ‘then just cut some meat and fat from the walls!’ The people were surprised that they hadn’t ever thought of that, but Coyote wasn’t surprised at all. He was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for.”

“Is that why the _Dineh_ say you got the mark of Coyote in you, Daddy? ‘Cause you’re a lot smarter than people think?” Roy laughed.

“They say that for lots of reasons, baby, and not all of them are that nice.” Coyote was a notorious trickster in one story, a fool in the next and a genius the one after. In some, he was all three at once. He was one of the most human characters in Navajo mythology and though his totem was the hawk, Roy had always had an affinity for Coyote. The tattoo on his arm he’d gained after his third naming ceremony reflected that. “Now shush and let me finish the story.

“So Coyote took his hunting knife and cut some meat and fat off the giant’s stomach.” Lian made a face like she’d smelled rotten fish. Alright, it was no Disney princess fairytale but those were way overrated. Besides, glitter and rainbows didn’t make for a very interesting tale. Roy continued. “He gave it to all the people he saw, even the woman he’d met first. The people got stronger from the food but they were still pretty sad about being trapped in a giant’s stomach. ‘How are we gonna get outta here?’ they asked. Luckily for them, Coyote had a plan! ‘Tell me where the giant’s heart is and I’ll get us out!’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s that volcano over there, the one making all that noise!’ one woman suggested. ‘Ah hah! I think you’re right!’ Coyote ran over and started hac--” Roy paused in his storytelling as his lone audience member finally nodded off.

“Guess I’ll tell you the rest tomorrow.” He murmured softly, kissing her forehead. He slowly stood from the bed and looked back at her sleeping form, black hair spread over the blue Superman pillowcase she’d begged him for, the beautiful green eyes she’d inherited from her mother gently closed. “Night, _Etai Yazi_ ,” he whispered, turning off the light and leaving the door open just a crack.


End file.
